Greetings from Central Florida

[FloridaGary]

Hi all,

I have been a watch collector for 22 years and have a great appreciation for the art and engineering of mechanical and automatic timepieces. I decided to retire a little early from a career  in corporate Human Resources and although I find it easy to keep myself busy, I have decided to pursue an education as a watch maker. I was one of those kids that always wanted to take things apart and put them back together. Ironically at 12 years old, I fixed a broken clock that my parents had on their bedroom dresser which turned into taking apart lawn mower engines at 14 and then working on cars at 16. It seemed I was destined for a career in some mechanical profession, but college changed that. Now I want to combine my mechanical interests with my love of timepieces. I look forward to learning from all of you.  

[grsnovi]

Hi Gary,

Welcome to retirement  

Sounds like you understand taking things apart and figuring out what's wrong. The big difference with mechanical watches is the size - everything is tiny!

Here are a couple of things to look at that might help:

• Animated web page with lots of information.
• YouTube showing how a watch works.

Mark also has online courses that you might consider: https://www.watchfix.com/

Welcome to WRT.

- Gary

[Neverenoughwatches]

1 hour ago, FloridaGary said:

Hi all,

I have been a watch collector for 22 years and have a great appreciation for the art and engineering of mechanical and automatic timepieces. I decided to retire a little early from a career  in corporate Human Resources and although I find it easy to keep myself busy, I have decided to pursue an education as a watch maker. I was one of those kids that always wanted to take things apart and put them back together. Ironically at 12 years old, I fixed a broken clock that my parents had on their bedroom dresser which turned into taking apart lawn mower engines at 14 and then working on cars at 16. It seemed I was destined for a career in some mechanical profession, but college changed that. Now I want to combine my mechanical interests with my love of timepieces. I look forward to learning from all of you.  

Welcome Gary. It sounds as though you were destined for watch repair. Your background for fixing things will be a huge asset for you. The logical understanding of taking mechanical devices apart fault finding and then reassembling to working order  is the essence of watch repair. But then sooooo much more to learn. Everyone is very helpful and friendly here occasionally a little barmy but thats par for the course and makes here fun as well. Enjoy matey.

[watchweasol]

Hello and welcome to the forum        enjoy the experience.

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[Nucejoe]

Welcome to the WRT forum. 

[FloridaGary]

8 hours ago, grsnovi said:

Hi Gary,

Welcome to retirement  

Sounds like you understand taking things apart and figuring out what's wrong. The big difference with mechanical watches is the size - everything is tiny!

Here are a couple of things to look at that might help:

• Animated web page with lots of information.
• YouTube showing how a watch works.

Mark also has online courses that you might consider: https://www.watchfix.com/

Welcome to WRT.

- Gary

Thank you and I appreciate the information. I do plan to complete Mark’s courses and look forward to it. I am so glad that loupes exist in this world to help see these tiny parts!

7 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Welcome Gary. It sounds as though you were destined for watch repair. Your background for fixing things will be a huge asset for you. The logical understanding of taking mechanical devices apart fault finding and then reassembling to working order  is the essence of watch repair. But then sooooo much more to learn. Everyone is very helpful and friendly here occasionally a little barmy but thats par for the course and makes here fun as well. Enjoy matey.

Thank you. 

[Neverenoughwatches]

17 minutes ago, FloridaGary said:

am so glad that loupes exist in this world to help see these tiny part

That will quickly progress to a microscope  and then a bigger better microscope

[grsnovi]

10 hours ago, FloridaGary said:

I am so glad that loupes exist...

Although I'll pop one in from time to time, I prefer using my visor and/or microscope.

[FloridaGary]

I am considering purchasing a scope based on the recommendations I’ve read and from the YouTube recommendations. These are the products I am looking at:

 

[grsnovi]

That's a good scope. You may also want a Barlow to give you increased working distance. If you do get it, be sure to show us some of your photos with that camera. I already had a number of cameras so I went with a different camera mount. You may also want to become familiar with focus stacking.

[FloridaGary]

12 hours ago, grsnovi said:

That's a good scope. You may also want a Barlow to give you increased working distance. If you do get it, be sure to show us some of your photos with that camera. I already had a number of cameras so I went with a different camera mount. You may also want to become familiar with focus stacking.

Good catch! I forgot to display it. 
 

Focus stacking? Not sure what that means yet, but I’ll search to learn more about it. 
 

 

Edited October 9, 2022 by FloridaGary